RCSEd Obtains Tax Relief for Medical Trainees' Fees

We are delighted to announce that, following negotiations between the College's Trainee Member of Council, Issaq Ahmed, and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has been successful in obtaining agreement that all mandatory training fees payable by all medical trainees will become tax deductible from today: for surgical trainees this includes the fee payable to the Joint Committee on Surgical Training (JCST).

The initiative to approach HMRC with this issue, following previous unsuccessful attempts, was spearheaded and led by Trainee Member of Council, Issaq Ahmed.

Speaking about the new agreement, Mr Ahmed said:

"As a Committee which represents the interests and concerns of trainee surgeons, and as trainee surgeons ourselves, the cost of training is an issue of great importance to us. We know that it is also of great concern to our colleagues in other areas of healthcare. Although mandatory fees such as the JCST fee were not recognised as tax deductible, we firmly believed that such fees met all the guidelines set by HMRC as to what constitutes eligibility for tax deductible status. We set our case before HMRC and, following some months of communication and submitting evidence, our assertions were accepted. We are absolutely delighted with the outcome which will make a real difference to the amount that medical trainees have to pay throughout their medical training."

RCSEd President, Mr Ian Ritchie added:

"It is central to the aims and beliefs of our College that we support each new generation of surgeons. We made the decision to have an elected Trainee Member of Council and, subsequently, constituted the College's Trainees' Committee, to ensure that the College could stay abreast of the issues facing trainee surgeons. I am delighted that Issaq has had such success and I commend all his efforts. Through his hard work and dedication he has not only been able to help his fellow surgical trainees but all his medical trainee colleagues."